The Concrete Foundations Association (CFA) now offers educational courses online. Jim Baty, CFA’s Technical Director, will instruct registrants on the features and benefits of the basement wall and retaining wall software packages available on the CFA website, www.cfawalls.org. Registrants will be able to view the step-by-step instructions online from their own computers while they ask questions over the phone in a teleconference environment.

After completing the hourlong course, registrants will have the tools necessary to make key decisions during the design process resulting in successful wall designs.

The CFA engineering programs help poured wall contractors design retaining walls to comply with ACI-318, the general design code for concrete construction (soon to be updated to ACI-332 for residential concrete). The basement wall program allows contractors to design a basement wall using CABO95, IRC 2000, UBC, BOCA97 or ACI318-99 codes. Designs can be submitted and approved by an engineering stamp within 24 hours through Consulting Engineers Corporation, the company who designed the software.

The class fee is $50 per connection, and classes are limited to fourteen registrants per session. The schedule for classes can be found at the CFA website.